This year, Susanna and I decided to try something different. Instead of all of us going to Sweden over the summer, we took a family vacation to St. Louis. We came to visit Susanna’s family in Sweden for Christmas instead of having a Christmas at home.

We started our journey in New London on the 23rd of December. We planned an afternoon Amtrak train to Boston. And that morning the train service decided to start our trip with delays. Electrical problems caused delays from all the trains out of New York City going north. Luckily, Amtrak let us change tickets to an earlier scheduled train, which still arrived after our planned departure.

The rest of the trip went smoothly. The security line in Boston, and the passport control in Iceland were both thankfully short. Izzy even slept for an hour or so on the flight from Iceland to Sweden. A short taxi ride later we were at our hotel, with time for Izzy and I to grab lunch at Max Burgers while Susanna took a short nap.

Christmas day started slow. We didn’t plan to meet Susanna’s family until the afternoon for dinner. Susanna and Izzy walked the mostly-closed mall next to the hotel, and I took a mostly pleasant walk around the city. I tried to get some pictures, but a wet and overcast day presented challenges.

Thursday we drove to Sävsjöström with Susanna’s parents and plan to spend the rest of our vacation there. I had been expecting snow and cold, but so far that hasn’t been the case. While it is overcast and damp, it is otherwise pleasant for walking around. At least for the 6 hours of daylight this time of year.

According to Izzy, “It was chaos at my house today.” At least that is what she told her Swedish teacher during class tonight. To be fair, it was.

But it was fun. Only one dish was broken, and no one seriously hurt. It has been a while since we have had a 2-year old and 3-year old running around the house. On top of the toddlers running around, we had an extra two dogs and a rainy day that kept them mostly inside. Where to start?

For Thanksgiving dinner, we had 7 adults, an 8 year old, a 3 year old, a 2 year old, 3 dogs (ours plus 2), and one person with pneumonia that stayed in their room.

I am thankful for my wife who helped me put together a Thanksgiving dinner for family and friends. When the toddlers were running around, she became her preschool teacher self and helped stem some of the chaos. Even before the chaos, she got up in the morning and drove up to Hartford to pick up Ben’s girlfriend, Nu, and bring her down for the day. And after it was all done, she stayed in the kitchen and helped me clean up debris.

I am thankful for my oldest, Will, and that he was over his pneumonia and able to join us. Despite still a bit weak, and tired from taking care of his partner, Bug, who now has picked up the pneumonia from Will, helped me get the table setup, extra chairs needed, and even cleaned the bathroom.

I am thankful for Ben. He is at Navy boot camp and still has weeks to go before becoming a sailor. I’m thankful that he is going well and has chosen to serve. Unfortunately I’ll miss his graduation in January, but plan to visit him at A-school in April during Izzy’s spring break.

I am thankful for Izzy. She is growing up way too fast. She helped watch the young ones during dinner, and even cleaned up all the toys after everyone was gone (with only a little complaining). She started the day helping set the table and bringing down age-appropriate toys to setup for the kids.

I am thankful for my two boys’ partners, Bug and Nu. Bug helped take care of Will when he was sick over the past few weeks, and now is paying the price for that with getting pneumonia himself. Nu is holding down the fort at home so Ben can focus on his job of becoming a sailor.

I’m thankful for the friends that were here today. First, my neighbors who left their dog at home today (but thankfully bring her over a few times a week so Hoagie can have a play date). Somehow they remained unfazed with the running around. Next, an old Navy friend who is brave (or crazy) enough to bring his young daughter and son to visit us on one of the few days he gets to spend with them.

I’m even thankful for the three dogs that are currently sleeping next to me after they spend an entire day adding to the chaos. They certainly made sure no food was left on the floor, and provided endless entertainment for the kids (when they were let out from behind the baby gate. Of course I’m thankful for Hoagie, who helps make sure I get out and go walking more than I would otherwise (though less than I should). But I’m also thankful for Oreo and Dakota; them being here means that my friend, Mark, gets to spend Thanksgiving with his family who is in Washington, DC visiting him.

And finally, I’m thankful for the family and friends that I didn’t get to see today.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I departed Boston Logon on Friday morning and landed at Taoyuan International Airport on Saturday night and took the high speed rail to Kaohsiung City. I arrived at my hotel after 10pm hoping that I would be able to get a long night sleep. However, the 12-hour time shift had me up early, so I took a walk around the city before it got too hot. Today will be an easy day before starting work first thing on Monday. Hopefully I can head home by Friday.

I’m trying to make sure the front porch renovation doesn’t take forever, but I’m sure it seems that way. I finished the stair railing and balusters a week ago, and this weekend, Susanna finished painting them. There are a few pieces remaining to finish (e.g. the riser under the bottom stair), but the hard part is done.

I made the template for the balusters on the CNC. I cut the hole out on the CNC on each individual baluster using a 1/8″ bit, and used the CNC to cut a shallow outline of the rest of the baluster. I then used a jig saw to trim the bulk of the waste away and finished the pieces using a pattern bit and my router.

Of course, the real win is in the details, which Susanna did. She sanded, caulked, and painted the railings to match the trim on the house. What a difference new stairs make to the look of the house.

I’m working on replacing the front porch stairs. When I purchased the house, there were no railings on the stairs. As part of a VA loan refinance a few years ago I had very simple railings installed. This time I want to make the stairs match the house style. We have a Victorian farmhouse, so I didn’t want to go too fancy, but wanted something more than spindles from the box store.

I initially cut the balusters on the CNC, but it was a 2-hour cut for each baluster on the machine. I’ve improved the process to 15-minutes on the CNC (cut the inside shape and a shallow outline of the outside) followed up by a jig saw and pattern bit on the router, for a total build time of 30-minutes per baluster, thought I can do the shop work while the CNC is cutting the next baluster.

Today I started fitting the balusters to the top subrail to check my spacing. I’m using the porch guide from Vintage Woodworks as a start. The balusters are a mix of poplar and birch (I had a birch board laying around), but will be painted. The birch was a lot harder to to work with than the poplar (as expected).

After testing the fit, I started working out how to attach the bottom rail to the balusters. Once the balustrade is assembled and passes the test fit, I will disassemble the pieces, sand, prime, and paint prior to reassembling and installing the balustrade on the porch.

Even though I plan on painting the balusters, I want to minimize the water on the underside of the part. I am adding a v-groove on the bottom of the balusters that will ride in a corresponding sloped top of the bottom rail. I tried to cut the v-groove with the tablesaw, but couldn’t get it to make an even groove. This week I ordered a 120-degree bit for the router and built a jig to cut the bottom of each baluster.

I initially tried to setup something in the router table, but the balusters are 31″ long, and would be awkward to stand up on end on the table. I decided to bring the router to the work instead, and built a jig from scrap lumber. I have a few more balusters to cut out this weekend, but then I’ll be ready to start installing the parts on the railing.

The next big challenge will be to figure out how to pre-drill the top and bottom rails as well as the balusters so that they don’t split when screwed together.

I have been working on repairing the front porch for a while. It has been one of those projects that I didn’t have a problem starting, but I’ve been very slow finishing. One of the repairs I have been working on has been the front stairs. If the existing stairs weren’t original to the house, they were certainly past their useful life. I have the stairs installed, and am now working on the railing.

I didn’t really like the look of the simple balusters that one can get at the hardware store, so decided to use sawn balusters. However, they are very pricey to order online, and only come in limited styles. I purchased a collection of digital patterns on Etsy, and decided to try to make them myself.

The balusters are made from Poplar that I milled to 5/8″ thick. I think I need to make a total of 14 balusters for the project, and each currently takes about 2-hours to cut out. I’m currently cutting out the entire shape on the CNC. However I may switch to using a pattern bit and router for the outside if the CNC takes too long. The nice thing about the CNC is that I can work on other projects in the shop while it is running.

Lesson’s learned so far:
1. The balusters need to be a little over 31″ long to fit between the top and bottom rail. The boards I have are a little over 7′ long, so I can only get two balusters per board. I need boards a touch over 8′ long to get 3 balusters/board. I’ll have to look through the stack at the lumber yard to get longer pieces when I go back.
2. It takes lots of trial and error to get the cut right. I used MDF as a cheap practice material, however the MDF is tough on the CNC bits.
3. This is a pretty hefty project for this hobby machine, so shallow cuts and long cut times are what seem to work.

My CNC is only 14″ x 14″, so I have to tile the cut and do the project in two steps:

Today we started the long legs of our trip, the first of two 7-ish hour days in the car from the Poconos to Webster Groves. We took a half-way break at Doolittle Station in DuBois, PA. We explored the dinosaurs and train cars, picking up a small snack at the cafe before continuing on. Pictures from today:

Today was our Poconos visit. After a mediocre breakfast at our hotel and some swimming time at the hotel pool, we headed to Columcille Megalith Park to get out a bit. It wasn’t a long hike, but Izzy ran around, eventually getting lost and needing me to go find her. Luckily it wasn’t a big park. We had lunch at a small park and playground in the city and headed out a little bit to do mini-golf and drive go-karts. Izzy spotted a crystal store on our drive and insisted on stopping. Tomorrow is our fist long of two days of longer drives to get to St. Louis on Wednesday.

We stopped for ice cream on the drive back to the hotel, again returned to the pool and hot tub for a swim. This evening will be take-out pizza and TV.